July 1, 2002

OAKLAND, Calif. - (July 1, 2002) - Service Ratings™, LLC announced it has purchased all of the assets of Oakland-based ValueStar, Inc., a leader in customer satisfaction ratings of local service businesses in America. The purchase includes all of ValueStar's propietary software and databases, patent rights, client lists, and logos, seals, and other trademarks. ValueStar, Inc. was forced to shut down in late 2001 when the investment climate following September 11 prevented the company from completing a financing then in progress. The shutdown came just prior to the rollout of the company's ValueStar Customer-Rated program to more than 250,000 credit card holders in the San Francisco Bay Area. The ValueStar Customer-Rated program would have provided those cardholders with ValueStar Benefits, including access to the company's online and printed directories of reliable, quality-oriented service providers, the opportunity to rate listed providers, a money-back guarantee on purchases from such businesses, and reward points in a variety of popular airline and credit card loyalty programs.

Service Ratings, founded in January 2002 and based in the Washington , DC area, will restart the ValueStar Customer-Rated Program using the ValueStar name. As before, the service will offer ValueStar Benefits to consumers nationwide via corporate partners including major credit cards issuers. "Our mission," says CEO Lou Morsberger, "is to make the world a better place for both consumers and local businesses by helping quality-focused consumers find reliable, quality-oriented providers in nearly every service category, whether home repair and maintenance, auto repair, health care - you name it. Our online and print directories of service providers and ratings give consumers a level of knowledge, power and assurance they've never had before." The company's management is in the process of renewing ties to the past corporate partners of ValueStar, Inc. and is working to expand the company's partner relationships overall. The company has already verified that certain former ValueStar partners will participate in the re-activated Customer-Rated program.

How the Customer-Rated Program Works
The ValueStar Customer-Rated Program ("ValueStar") first verifies the licensing, insurance, legal and financial status of local service businesses. Companies that satisfy ValueStar's high standards and which agree to be rated by consumers on an ongoing basis qualify to use the ValueStar Verified™ symbol as a powerful marketing tool to differentiate them based on quality and value. Thereafter, those companies that maintain an excellent standard of customer satisfaction, as confirmed by customer satisfaction surveys, qualify to use either the ValueStar Customer Rated™ or Customer-Rated Gold™ symbol and are listed in the online and printed ValueStar Report. Whenever a consumer uses an eligible credit card with a ValueStar Customer-Rated service provider, a brief survey is sent to them shortly afteward asking their opinion of the services they've received. Submission of the survey activates a $500 money-back guarantee of the service, provides mediation services in the case of any dispute, and earns the cardholder points in one of several popular reward programs.

ValueStar's benefits for consumers are immediate. Buyers look for the ValueStar Customer-Rated™ Symbol when shopping to quickly find top-rated companies. Armed with ValueStar's independent customer satisfaction ratings, consumers have the confidence to shop with relatively unknown companies on-line or in one of ValueStar's printed directories. ValueStar's rating information is unique, branded content unavailable to consumers anywhere else. To use ValueStar, interested consumers can go to www.valuestar.com or to a participating card issuer's site. Once on the site, consumers search by service provider name or industry and geographic region. Consumers can then browse lists of rated businesses or see if the company they plan to do business with has earned the ValueStar Customer-Rated seal. For more information about ValueStar Corporation please call 1-800-298-1260.

About ValueStar
ValueStar is a leading publisher of online and printed local service directories providing confirmed consumer ratings of service businesses and professionals. ValueStar evaluates local service companies on a range of factors and uses a proprietary system to gather feedback from actual consumers. The company is owned by Service Ratings, LLC and headquartered in the Washington, DC, area, with operations in Oakland, Calif., which service consumers and businesses throughout the Bay Area.

For more information, go to www.ValueStar.com.